Never Give Up
by PerrythePlatypusGirl
Summary: College AU. Anna's been having some problems with her sister. After a huge fight, she's just about ready to give up on her. But maybe a certain classmate will be able to convince her otherwise.
The sound of Anna's car door slamming seemed to echo through the garage like thunder. With a huff, the girl locked her car and proceeded out of the garage, shivering a bit in the cold January air.

Here she was, having driven all the way to campus in a bad mood, on a cold day, for an assignment she didn't want to do. If she had known that things would go so horribly just a few hours before she was supposed to meet her partner for a research project, she would have just cancelled the whole thing. But the guy already thought she was a ditz and maybe even a slacker, and she didn't want to prove him right. The last thing Anna wanted was for her sister _and_ her classmate to be mad at her. He was the one who asked to meet up at lunch time, sure, but _she_ had said it was a good time! How terrible would it be if she didn't show up?

The clock on her phone said 12:35. She was late. Of course. Anna would be surprised if he hadn't just completed the project on his own and left already. She wouldn't blame him if he did. Who would want to work with a girl that couldn't even take her General Education courses seriously? Especially if that's all she was taking?

Anna shook her head furiously. Ok, time to stop beating herself up. She wasn't usually this negative, today just wasn't the best day was all. Sighing, the girl finally arrived at the campus' cafe, where she'd agreed to meet with her partner for lunch, to work on their project for class.

She spotted him sitting at one of the tables outside, looking at something on his phone and probably waiting impatiently for her. At the sight of him, Anna couldn't help but pause for a moment. She'd seen him before, of course, in class, but for some reason, she still felt that she had to stop and look for a moment each time she saw him.

Tall, well-built, and with a charming smile, Tadashi was the type of guy who could brighten anyone's day just by existing, or at least that's what Anna thought. She'd never seen him in a bad mood before, but she had the feeling she was about to...ugh. Might as well get this over with.

"Ahem, uh...hi," Anna stammered, walking up to the table at last.

Tadashi looked up in surprise, and a relieved smile crossed his face. "Oh, there you are," he chuckled.

"I-I'm so sorry I'm late," Anna continued haphazardly, sitting down across from him. "I just...um, some stuff came up, and traffic, and...!"

"It's ok," Tadashi replied. "You're here now, right?"

"Y...yeah." She forced a smile, then leaned down to grab the materials she needed. "A-anyway, I'll try not to take up much more time-here's the research I got, and, uh...I kinda got an outline for the presentation started..."

"Cool. I actually got my half mostly done while I was waiting, maybe we should figure out a way to combine them."

Anna froze, that fake smile still plastered on her face. Her half wasn't done yet. Of course he was ahead of her already. Good to see that she'd be wasting his time again. Fantastic.

"Awesome! Uh, can I see yours?" she asked, pretending that she had this whole situation under her control.

He handed her his notes and gave her his laptop so she could see, and went back to waiting patiently. Anna tried to get through it quick. She didn't want to make him wait any longer than he already had.

But she couldn't pay attention. No matter how hard she tried, she could barely focus on the stuff in front of her. Her mind kept going back to what had happened that morning...

" _Anna, will you just leave me alone for once?!"_

 _"I've been leaving you alone! You're always alone, dammit! Why can't you just talk to me?!"_

 _"I don't want to talk! If you want to talk then go see your friends! You've got plenty of those, don't you?"_

The words from before echoed in Anna's mind, as she tried to shake them loose. No, focus... she told herself. Focus on the project...

" _That's not the point! It's not about me! I want to talk to you, Elsa! Excuse me for the inconvenience, but I actually care about you!"_

 _"Well, stop! Stop caring about me! Just leave me alone!"_

 _She slammed the door. Right in Anna's face. Anna's throat was sore. She'd been yelling. She'd yelled at her sister. Her sister had yelled at her._

"Anna? Anna, what's wrong?"

Anna snapped out of her little flashback, and looked up to see Tadashi staring at her in concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked, urgency in his voice.

"Eh?" Anna stammered, noticing the hoarseness of her own voice right then. "I'm f-fine...why?"

"You're crying."

Her jaw dropped in surprise as she reached up to touch her face, feeling tears that she didn't even know were there. In a panic, she pushed the laptop and notes away from her, fearing that she'd damaged them with her tears somehow.

"I'm sorry!" She cried. "I-I didn't even notice, I-I-I didn't ruin anything did I? Did I break your laptop?"

In response, Tadashi closed the lid of said laptop and slid it next to him, out of sight. "Forget about the laptop," he replied. "What happened? What's the matter?"

He handed her a couple of napkins from the table they were at. Anna accepted them and began to wipe her face, not really answering his question.

"If this isn't the best time-" Tadashi began, but Anna cut him off.

"It doesn't matter, I'm sorry," she stammered again. "L-let's just finish this project, we're already b-behind cause of me, I don't wanna drag you down any more."

"Hey," he said gently. "Forget the project, alright? It's not that important."

Anna stared back in surprise and took in his earnest expression. Any other person would be weirded out if a classmate they barely knew just suddenly started crying in front of them. But not Tadashi. He wanted to help. How typical.

"I just...it's been a bad day," she finally told him quietly. He didn't reply, just sat there patiently, with just a hint of a supportive smile on his face.

Anna took another breath, and after a moment of contemplation, continued. "I had a fight with my sister..."she murmured. "It was...kinda terrible."

"Ah," he grinned, understanding at last. "Yeah, I can understand that..."

"I don't wanna bore you with the details," she sighed, leaning against her hand. "Unless you're okay with listening to me ramble."

"I don't mind," Tadashi replied. "I have plenty of time. We could grab some drinks if you want. And just talk."

Despite her mood, Anna couldn't help but grin happily at his offer. "Um...that would actually be really great. Thanks."

They took a second to gather up their stuff, and they went and did exactly that. After paying for their drinks, the two college students sat down at the table again, sipping on them silently.

Anna played with her straw for a moment, trying to get her thoughts together. Tadashi wasn't pressuring her to speak, but it didn't matter, since she was more than willing to ramble.

"So, like..." she began, still wiping some stray tears from her eyes. "I mean, I don't even know...my sister is kind of a mystery to me. We're nothing alike."

"Does she bug you a lot?"

"No, she's actually really nice to me, it's just that she's...always alone? I mean, she was always kind of an introvert, but, it's gotten worse lately because-" she paused, feeling a slight ache in her chest. Swallowing a lump in her throat, Anna quieted down once more. "Well, I...we lost our parents a while ago, and..."

This caused Tadashi to wince a little. "Oh. I'm sorry..."

"Mm," Anna responded, rubbing her forehead a little. "It's ok. I mean, I miss them, but...I'm more worried about Elsa-about my sister. She's been depressed, and...she won't even let me help her..."

Tadashi said nothing.

"And here I thought we were supposed to support each other," Anna continued rambling, " And I'm trying to do that for her! I've been inviting her to go and hang out, to be productive and move on...and then I thought, well, maybe she just needs some time to grieve, so I give her _months_ -but no, we're just drifting apart even more, and I...ugh, I don't know what to do...and today she told me to just stop caring about her..."

Anna stopped talking, and Tadashi waited. When it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything else, the boy decided to chime in.

"You know..." he said, "your sister kinda reminds me of my brother."

Anna scoffed. "Does your brother shut you out all the time?"

"Sometimes. He gets pretty emotional. I mean..." Tadashi frowned as he spoke. "Not quite for the same reasons. Our parents died when he was only three, so he doesn't really remember them..."

Anna looked up at this. Huh. She didn't think that someone else actually had this same problem...

Tadashi continued. "...but he's got plenty of other issues he gets upset about. And then he doesn't wanna talk to anybody. He gets picked on a lot, and doesn't really have friends...and yeah, there are times when he acts like he just...doesn't want me around." The boy swirled his drink around in his cup, not really looking at Anna.

"That sounds exactly like Elsa." Anna murmured. "So then...what do you do?"

Tadashi shrugged. "I don't pressure him. Just wait for him to blow off some steam and then go talk. Rinse and repeat."

"Rinse and repeat?" Anna repeated in frustration. "But...don't you ever get sick of it? Don't you ever get upset that he won't talk to you? Don't you ever just want to...to..."

"...give up?" Tadashi finished for her, smiling a little. "No way. He's my brother. Why would I ever give up on him?"

Anna frowned. "Well, maybe cause he doesn't want you..."

"He does. I can see it in him. And besides, he _needs_ me." He sipped on his drink again. "And to be perfectly honest, I need him too. So I'll sit on my butt and wait for him as long as I need to."

Anna stared down at the table. "Yeah...I know. I know Elsa needs me, and I need her. But I just...it's hard."

"Trust me, I know," Tadashi replied quietly. "And...I can't say that we're exactly the same, but...you know, as long as nobody's getting really hurt, I think you can handle it."

"I don't know if I can..."

"I think you can," he gave her a cheeky smile and leaned forward. "You're that passionate, happy girl from my debate class, aren't you? I can't imagine you'd give up on someone you care about. "

His compliment made Anna's cheeks turn pink as she awkwardly avoided his gaze and stared at her cup. Her reflection stared back at her, looking lost and absolutely pathetic with her obvious blushing. Passionate and happy...did Tadashi really think that of her? Sure, they didn't know each other too well, but the thought of it just made her smile.

"Th-thanks..." she said.

"Sure," he replied gently. "I...hope this helps, at least."

"It does!" Anna told him. "I...it really does. You're right, Tadashi, thank you so much."

He beamed at her. "Anytime."

"A-and...I'm so sorry about our project, again. I'll do my best to get it done, but...if we don't get a good grade..."

He shrugged. "Eh. Not a problem to me. It's a General Ed course. Who even cares, as long as we pass, right?"

Anna sat there and stared back at him...before she burst out laughing.

Tadashi was confused. "What? What's so funny?"

"N-nothing...it's just so weird to hear you say that! I thought you were a perfectionist or something!"

Tadashi blinked again, but watched her laugh for a moment before he leaned back in his chair, sipping on his drink with a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"No, I'm not disappointed at all." She let out another giggle, and absentmindedly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and finished her drink. "In that case, I'll just...email you my part..."

He shrugged. "That's fine," At that point, he stood up, having finished his drink, and for some reason Anna did the same.

"So..." Tadashi began slowly. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah," Anna replied, still smiling.

They stood there grinning at one another for a moment, before Anna finally took a step forward and gave huge, grateful hug. "Thank you so much," she said quietly.

He seemed surprised by the sudden contact, but still hugged her back. "Uh, of course. You're welcome, Anna." He let go of her after a moment, placed a hand on her shoulder and grin. "Now, you should probably go home and talk to your sister."

Anna giggled again and nodded. "Ok. Um...I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah. Good luck."

"Yeah, you too...I mean, uh...heh. Thanks. See ya."

Anna grabbed her stuff and started off at last, waving at him as she walked away, still grinning from ear to ear. Truth be told, she didn't really want to leave him, but she knew she had something important to do.

The warm feeling stayed with her during the entire drive home, and soon Anna found herself opening the door to her tiny apartment home, humming a little like she usually did.

As soon as she got inside, though, she found Elsa waiting for her. Anna stopped humming, afraid for a second that her sister was still upset. But she took one look at Elsa's face and knew that wasn't true.

"Anna..." Elsa began quietly. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

Anna smiled compassionately and engulfed her sister in a hug. "I'm sorry too."

Elsa hugged her back but continued talking. "Y-you're probably still mad..."

"No," Anna said softly.

"But I'm always so...so depressing, and..."

"It's ok. I'm here for you," Anna reassured her. "I'm not giving up on you, Elsa."

* * *

By that night, Anna and Elsa had made up for the time being, and the girl went to bed with a huge, content smile on her face. As she lay in the dark staring at the ceiling, Anna thought back to the events of that day. Yeah, it had started off rough, but...everything was fine now. She sure was glad she'd taken Tadashi's advice.

Tadashi...the thought of the boy made her smile again. What a great guy he was. Anna was really glad she'd gotten to talk to him today instead of canceling. Who would have thunk they would get so much closer from just meeting over lunch to discuss a project?

All of a sudden, Anna's eyes snapped back open as a thought occurred to her. _Wait a minute...he asked me to meet up for lunch...and we didn't study...and instead we just got some drinks and talked about ourselves...and laughed...and then hugged?_ Anna's mouth fell open as she gasped right there in bed. _Oh my gosh! Did I just go on a **date**?!_


End file.
